Asking the big and small questions:
Why? Why not? What if?
There's something to be said for Kitchen Table Wisdom - you know, like in the old days when people sat around the kitchen table after a meal and talked about life, the universe and the meaning of it all - as well as the gossip doing the rounds in town...
Well, that's what this place is - a place to share common wisdom, thoughts and feelings about things important and unimportant, that bring us joy, laughter and happiness and that trouble, sadden, confuse and anger us ...
What I write here is what's 'real' for me. It won't always be PC or 'nice'. We're missing out on true connection and chances to grow and change because there's too little authenticity, too little honesty, too much holding back what we really feel and mean.
Welcome to my world...
I used to have a copyright claim here, but I've removed it...
Ideas don't belong to anyone -
they come to those who are receptive and are to be used for the well being of all...
I find images and movies and music all over the web
and I use them to accent/expand on my thoughts and understandings...
If you feel you have experienced or received something of value in reading my posts,
please consider either:
or paying it forward to those who need
material and emotional/spiritual sustenance in this world...
Thank You
As You Think, So It Is - Your Beliefs Create Your Reality
If your Reality isn't Working for You, Create a New One!
Life Unlimited!
Namaste
(the Divine in me, recognises and honours the Divine in you)
Well, there's more than one way to live better than we currently are doing under capitalism...
Here's just one set of ideas....
It's not all fantasy either...
From Wikipedia's entry on Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983):
"Buckminster Fuller was one of the first to propagate a systemic worldview, and he explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design.
He cited François de Chardenedes' opinion that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings. An encapsulating quotation of his views might be: "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance."
Fuller was concerned about sustainability and about human survival under the existing socio-economic system, yet remained optimistic about humanity's future.
Defining wealth in terms of knowledge, as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life," his analysis of the condition of "Spaceship Earth" caused him to conclude that at a certain time during the 1970s, humanity had attained an unprecedented state.
He was convinced that the accumulation of relevant knowledge, combined with the quantities of major recyclable resources that had already been extracted from the earth, had attained a critical level, such that competition for necessities was not necessary anymore. Cooperation had become the optimum survival strategy. "Selfishness," he declared, "is unnecessary and hence-forth unrationalizable.... War is obsolete."
He criticized previous utopian schemes as too exclusive, and thought this was a major source of their failure. To work, he thought that a utopia needed to include everyone."
And Robert Theobald, (1929-1999), also saw another way out of the capitalist trap.
Robert was a private consulting economist and futurist author. In economics, he was best known for his writings on the economics of abundance and his advocacy of a Basic Income Guarantee.
He was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Triple Revolution in 1964, and later listed in the top 10 most influential living futurists in The Encyclopedia of the Future.
Robert said: "My goal is to create a situation of full unemployment--a world in which people do not have to hold a job. And I believe that this kind of world can actually be achieved."
Can you say the current paradigm is working well for you, all the other humans with whom we share this world, and the planet herself?
If we're not one of the comparative handful of people holding all the power and control currently, what have we got to lose in trying something different?
I wonder how many people think about this, as their homes and businesses are warmed and kept operating by coal-fired power and they complain about the bill each month?
I wonder if they ever see in their minds' eyes the gouging out of the earth and the destruction of the environment...
A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on March 31 captures a rare cloud-free glimpse of the Panian Coalfield, one of the largest coal mines in Asia and one of three coal operations on Semirara Island in the Philippines. The Semirara Mining Corporation, which operates the coal field, uses open-pit methods in which rock and soil are removed to reach coal seams below. In this image, released by NASA, several huge piles of rock and other mining debris can be seen ringing the northern half of the pit, with the dark coal seams visible along the southern wall of the mine. Also visible are plumes of mining sediment washing into the Sulu Sea.
And the death that comes to many who are trapped in small communities with no other way to earn their living?
Globally, mining companies profit from coal mining to the tune of $13.6Billion per year...
According to the US Census Bureau, as of July 2009 the US population stood at 307,006,550 people.
Wikipedia says the US population numbers 310,722,000.
It's generally accepted that the true unemployed/underemployed rate is running as high as 25%...
That means there are approximately 77,500,000 people in this country who are out of work, or not working sufficiently to meet their needs, or who have given up looking for work.
77 MILLION people (and their partners, families, communities) losing, or in danger of losing, their homes, not having enough food, without medical care, no transport... millions of children living with day-to-day survival issues...
Just to give you a sense of the enormity of that number - that's the population of 3.5 New Zealands, or one-and-a-bit United Kingdoms, or two Kenyas...
This is all being done in our names - and apparently we all agreed to this...
I don't remember anyone asking me if I wanted this... did anyone ask you?
And here is the reality for those on the ground:
And I kinda feel I have earned the right to post pacifist comments. I really understand the issue. I spent 18 years as a military wife, watching grown men get excited about spending taxpayer money on more elaborate, efficient tools and machines for killing people, and my elder son is serving in the New Zealand Army...
"There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we measure the well being of a society. In our upside-down system of accounting (GNP & GDP) war is productive, misery caused by it is not taken into account and a dead tree is better than a living forest."
This is a radio version of the feminist economics film about the New Zealand author and former member of parliament Marilyn Waring, directed by the Oscar winning Canadian director Terre Nash.
Speaking of old paradigms... there are some 'socially aware' businesses around the world who have adopted the Triple Bottom Line operating and accounting philosophy of PPP, which stands for People, Planet, Profit... Now, in my opinion, they've still got the focus wrong: It should be PLANET, PEOPLE, PROSPERITY.... As a species we are merely one variety of life in the ecosphere; we seem to have developed the arrogance of thinking the planet is our playground and we can do what we want to it, regardless of the rights of other species.... None of the beings on this planet can live within a damaged ecosphere, so our first responsibility is to the PLANET... And I think the word PROFIT ought to be replaced by PROSPERITY... profit still implies exploitation and benefit only for some, while prosperity implies benefit for all...
Born in Europe and raised in the southern hemisphere, I've lived in five countries on three continents and in two island nations...
I'm a communications, marketing and PR consultant, broadcast journalist, writer, editor, event manager, fund raiser, narration and voice-over artist...
I'm also a personal growth facilitator, teacher, breath worker, shaman, healer, ordained non-denominational minister and celebrant, in private and public practice...
Diversity, equality and equity, social justice and sustainable community issues are important to me and I'm active in social change groups...
I'm the parent of four children, three of whom are grown up and living in other parts of the world... kinda interesting doing the parenting thing again, from the far side of 50! Not as much energy nor as fast on my feet, but maybe a little more relaxed, wiser and certainly more street smart... as I tell my youngster: "with three older siblings, there's not much point in you trying anything - I've seen it all!"
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